The long-range goal of the SCORE Program at Meharry Medical College (MMC) is to assist in improving the competitive status of the school's research enterprise relative to other health science centers in the United States. The program seeks to create a research environment wherein faculty will improve their research skills and capabilities to efficiently conduct high quality research, to disseminate their research through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national meetings, and to compete with greater success for independent extramural research funds. Ongoing SCORE supported research and that proposed in supplements will assist MMC in its mission to conduct basic, clinical and applied research with special emphasis on diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect ethnic minority populations. The specific aims of the program are: 1) to increase the scientific productivity in terms of peer-reviewed publications by MBRS investigators from approximately four papers per three years (grant years 28-30) to an average of six papers per three years (grant years 32-34), and 2) to increase the acquisition of investigator initiated grants from 10% to 20% of the investigators associated with the SCORE program by year 34. [unreadable] [unreadable] Eight regular subprojects and two pilot projects were funded in 2003 (year 32) as a result of the competing continuation application. One of the regular projects was funded as a R01 in 2004 and has been withdrawn. Concurrently a subproject was added by transfer. A pending supplement (3 S06 GM08037-33S1) may add 3-4 regular subprojects and 1 pilot project. This supplemental application requests support for 7 regular research projects and 3 pilot projects. Projects are submitted from the School of Medicine departments of Biochemistry, Microbiology, OB/GYN, Pediatrics, Pharmacology and Physiology. Thus the program is projected to focus on a broad spectrum of health-related issues including cancer, sickle cell disease, signaling and transduction mechanisms, in-vitro fertilization, infectious diseases and neuroscience. [unreadable] [unreadable]